Dog Park!

We took the pups to the dog park.

They luv this place. I do too actually. We went on the 9th and it was PACKED. The weather had turned nice and it was a Sunday afternoon. I've never see so many folks out there, but it is always better when there are lots of other dogs to interact with.

I took my new camera along as well. I obviously still have a lot to learn, but I managed to get some decent action shots.



















I plan to take it with me again the next time we go. It was fun having them run back and forth between Honey and I to get those hauling ass shots. ;p

Fall

It turned into fall last week. When I left for work on Monday the 3rd there were a few leaves on the ground and I had noticed the trees starting to change color during the week prior.

When I got home on Friday the 7th most of the leaves were on the ground. The entire back yard is now covered. We didn't tend to it last weekend so we will have to today. Fortunately Honey is home this week and next on vacation so he can help out while I'm at work. We won't have time to get to it this weekend because we'll be out and about with family. I'll post more about that on Monday.

Last season was our first in the house and we didn't know we should keep them cleaned up if we wanted to spare the grass. I figured people just cleaned up because they wanted to keep their yards tidy. I suppose it doesn't matter much either way but this year we've decided to stay on top of it and keep them cleaned up.

I took some time to get a few shots with my new camera of them changing on the trees.

Wahoo!

I've wanted a new camera for a long time. My parents bought me a point and shoot about 6 years ago and it has been very good to me. I've been very satisfied with it. I've just kept the thought of a nice big non-point and shoot in my mind for many years and figured one day I'd get one.

That was until one day this summer. On August 24th 2008 I used a friend's Canon Rebel XTi. She had gotten it new a few months before and let me play with it a bit. Needless to say I didn't want to give it back to her. I tried my very best to play with it politely and then hand it back but I found it very difficult to let it go.

The seed was planted. I WANTED a new camera. NOW. The point and shoot has felt so sub par to me since I find it difficult to use with any passion at all.

So the research began. I started searching the internet off and on for pricing info on this XTi and seeing how much it was I realized I better cool my jets a bit and be a responsible adult.

A few weeks later I was talking to my dad about it and he mentioned a couple of lenses he had that he won't be using again that will fit this new camera. I felt the surge again knowing I would only have to purchase the body. Well I still stayed calm and bookmarked that information for the near future when I'd be able to make the purchase.

Then last week my Honey came to me and offered a part of his bonus check to give me an early Birthday/Christmas present. I peed. I did some more searching and found the camera body on Amazon. Then I noticed that since I'd played with my friend's XTi (10.1 MP) Cannon had released the next step up. The XSi (12.2 MP) and the cost between the two was insignificant!

Well of course I wanted the XSi. So I bought it. With a bunch of money from my Honey and a handful of my own, I am now the proud owner of a Canon Rebel XSi which is a nice upgrade from my 6 year old 3.1 MP Kodak EasyShare DX4330.

Most of the money I threw in bought me a nice camera backpack and a wireless remote to go along with the new camera.

Now all I need is to meet up with my dad and get those two lenses. I guess I'll just have to read the user manual in the meantime.

Prepare yourselves to start looking at this blog instead of reading it!

Cluster F*** Avoided - Raised Vegetable Bed Success!

In my October 30th post I stated that this past weekend was going to be a cluster F while I tried to figure out all the things I needed to do to get a raised planting bed in the front yard.

Well, we succeeded without too much problem. Really it was no problem at all, just time consuming hard work and a bit of snipping at each other. Well I supposed I did most of the snipping, or so it was implied.

Anyway, we have our very first raised bed, proudly sitting in the front yard, waiting patiently for seeds. I'll get them in this coming weekend.

I found instructions on how to build a bed that I thought looked good and seemed the most useful so we followed them almost to a T (accidentally making a couple of adjustments) but all in all it turned out just right. We may tweak a few things this coming weekend, like adding some more screws (we bought too few) and possibly cutting the pvc arcs down (for attaching bird netting), since we missed that step and they're too tall. Neither of these things is crucial to the function of the bed though so we're not too worried about it.

And now, here's the photo journal of our two day journey. Did you expect anything less? :)


We measured and laid out these markers to get an idea of how big of an area these beds would take up. We will eventually put in 2 2x4 beds that will sit perpendicular to the 4x6 we built this past weekend.


Back from a 2 hour trip to the store, Honey began cutting the wood.


While Honey cut the wood, I stained the freshly cut pieces. It was just a semi transparent stain to seal the wood and protect it from the elements.


After letting the stain dry overnight, we began the assembly the next afternoon.


Finished! It is actually sitting upside down at this point. The protruding posts will sit down in holes dug in the ground to keep it from moving around.


Now to mark the place. Honey gouged the earth around the posts so we'd know where to dig the holes and the area to be tilled.


Till baby till! I think he's having fun. :D


We removed the larger chunks of tilled up grass and set the bed in place.


Then we attached the pipes that will hold the bird netting frame. This design makes it easy to add or remove the frame with ease.


With the frame posts set, Honey worked to smooth the dirt as we added it a few bags at a time.


Now just smoothing out the full bed.


Here is the finished product.

Like I said before, the pvc arches are a bit too tall. They're supposed to be 6 feet long and we forgot to cut them down from 10 feet. All I need now is to buy some netting and plant the seeds!